The invention relates to a system and method for providing information content to an end user.
Several companies, e.g., TiVo, Inc., have been developing recording devices that enable to time-shift (pause, rewind, and slow-motion) play-out of live TV broadcasts. The user has to subscribe to a service (provided via a modem), and to connect the device between a TV, and a satellite receiver, cable box or antenna. The service provides an electronic program guide (EPG) based on the user-profile that develops over time. The service learns from the user what he or she prefers and will automatically record favorite shows and make suggestions about other shows based on the user""s preference profile.
The inventor has realized that it is a disadvantage that the service is location-specific. That is, mobile users cannot chose desirable programming from, and for, multiple geographically different places along their itinerary. It is therefore an object of the invention to broaden the scope of the known systems and services to provide more degrees of freedom to the end user.
To this end, the invention provides a method of enabling a user to access content information (e.g., video, audio). The method enables the user to select the content information, e.g., from an electronic program guide relating to a broadcast or multicast service. The selected content information gets recorded when it is broadcasted or multicasted. The method enables the user to select in advance at least a specific one from multiple geographically different locations at which the recorded, selected content information will be made available for play-out. Preferably, the invention also enables the user to specify a time frame for making the recorded content information available for play-out at the specific location. The content information can be recorded at a first recording system, e.g., at a server, whereafter the recorded selected content information is streamed over a data network, e.g., over the Internet or a private network like AOL, from the first recording system to the location specified by the user. If the specific location has a second recording system, the streaming uses a low-bandwidth protocol so as to keep Internet bandwidth usage low while recording at the second recording system.
The invention lets the user specify in advance a location for play-out of a specific broadcast or multicast program pre-recorded in response to the user""s selection, and has the content made available to him or her at that location. For example, the user can specify that he or she will be, e.g., at the house of a relative, at a specific hotel, on a particular flight of a specific airline, in a specific bar, a particular restaurant, etc., at a specific time period, and request that the content be recorded at this location. This requires that these other locations be integrated in the infrastructure of the service mentioned above.
The programs of a TV broadcasts are typically regional or local. If the user is traveling outside the region or the time zone, he or she may request to search for an identical program broadcasted in the new region, or a program of a similar content, or a program with identical or similar content but closer in time to the intended play-out, and record that program at a recording device in the pre-specified location.
Alternatively, or subsidiarily, a program can be recorded and stored temporarily at a server and then streamed over a data network, e.g., the Internet, using a low-bandwidth protocol, to a recording device specified by the user as destination. Note that bandwidth is not a critical factor in this service model or method of doing business, as recording and play-out occur as events separated in time.
The invention is based on an insight that several technological and demographic trends are emerging and gaining momentum: personalized information through Internet portals such as the web sites xe2x80x9cmy.yahoo.comxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cmy.excite.comxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9ccnn.comxe2x80x9d, etc. . . . ; personalized TV such as provided by TiVo, Inc.; the availability of EPG""s; home networking and home automation infrastructures, e.g., HAVi, Home API, JINI., tailored to the individual""s equipment, preferences and needs; teleconferencing; and an increasing mobility of the individual: business travel and recreational travel, and as a consequence thereof, an increasing demand for high quality services. Accordingly, the invention attempts to contribute to the user""s needs by means of enabling shifting of recording and play-out locations, in addition to the time-shifting provided by the known services.